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One of the significant limitations of the smaller MacBook Air is the storage space: only 64GB and 128GB options are available. Fortunately, this is one of the few truly user-upgradable options on the new models, and a third-party vendor has already stepped up with a solution. PhotoFast is announcing 128GB and 256GB SSD upgrades with improved controllers that let them claim a 30% performance increase compared to the stock Apple solid state drive. Additionally, the Taiwanese company includes a USB 3.0 thumb-drive enclosure so you can reuse your MacBook Air's existing SSD.

Although no shipping dates or pricing information has yet been released for the GM2 SFV1 Air aftermarket kit, it's already generated a lot of buzz based on the one-two punch of a speed bump plus external drive option. The performance increase is due to the SandForce SF1200 controller, which is also used in solid state drives like the Corsair Force SSD. PhotoFast says this will provide up to 250MB/s sequential read and write speeds as compared to 140 to 160 MB/s on the stock MacBook Air. Random reads are clocked at 50MB/s and random writes at 30MB/s, which are very significant improvements over Apple's hardware.

In a clever move, Photofast also bundles a USB 3.0 adapter in with the kit, allowing you to easily transfer the contents of your existing drive to the larger SSD. After you do the upgrade, you can put the original SSD in the enclosure and use it as a fast external drive.

A lot is going to depend on price, but this should be attractive both to people who want to increase the storage of the small MBA as well as power users looking to give the 13-inch model a boost. If the performance claims hold up, this upgrade would make the 2.4GHz MacBook Air a practical desktop replacement for many.